The New York City Design and Construction Department has selected four teams of designers and builders to receive design-build contracts to prepare the sites where new prisons located in the borough will be built, including on the site. from the Brooklyn Detention Complex at 275 Atlantic Ave. in Boerum. Hill.

In Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan, design-build teams will dismantle existing facilities at sites and construct temporary “transition spaces” to facilitate transfers from the New York Department of Corrections for court appearances during construction. .

The company selected for the Brooklyn “dismantling / swing space” is NorthStar Contracting Group, which was awarded a $ 59.7 million contract. NorthStar, a global company with New York offices located in Lower Manhattan, specializes in demolition of private and government facilities (such as Brooklyn Jail), lead and asbestos reduction, resolution environmental issues, disaster recovery and cleanup services, and nuclear power plant decommissioning.

Brooklyn’s existing 815-bed detention complex, built in the 1950s, has been closed, reopened, and renovated several times. According to a 2019 article in the Eagle, it will be replaced by a new building about twice the height of the current one, with 1,437 beds. The first floor will have an entrance for visitors to Boerum Place and a commercial and community space on the ground floor on Atlantic Avenue.

The current building, according to the Eagle article, has an underground tunnel connecting the prison to the criminal court building on Schermerhorn Street, through which prisoners can be transferred. The tunnel will be integrated into the new facility, although it may be renovated. The facility will also include 292 underground parking spaces.

Construction is already underway at the Queens site, where the new structure is being built on the west side of a parking lot on Union Turnpike. Brooklyn Jail was closed in 2020 for demolition.

“New York City is committed to forging a safer, better and more humane prison system, and that starts with building 21st century facilities,” said First Deputy Mayor Dean Fuleihan. “These expert teams will design and build prisons that reflect the strength and compassion of our city, and I look forward to celebrating the rapid progress towards the completion of every prison in the district in the years to come.”

“The borough-based prison program is fully funded and remains on track to provide the facilities that will be necessary to enable the closure of Rikers Island,” said Thomas Foley, acting commissioner of the design and development department. the construction of New York. “The selection of these design-build teams was a rigorous process based not only on price, but also on the experience, vision and ability of the teams to deliver a quality project on time and on budget. “

“This is another important step in the journey of New York and the DOC moving away from mass incarceration and towards a more community-oriented and neighborhood-friendly correctional system. Our new prisons are designed to optimize community and family interactions and rehabilitation programs, as well as the safety and security of staff and inmates, ”said Correctional Commissioner Vincent Schiraldi.

The Department of Design and Construction anticipates that the four contracts for dismantling structures in Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan, and for site preparation in the Bronx, will be registered by the end of 2021, with work starting in the first quarter. 2022. The contract for the installation of the Queens main water main has already been registered and work is also scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2022.

The DDC is working with the Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice (MOCJ) and the New York Department of Corrections (DOC) to implement the city’s plan to build four smaller, safer and fairer prisons in the boroughs and to close the prisons on Rikers Island.

For years, many residents of neighboring Brownstone areas have been pushing for the closure of the Atlantic Avenue facility in Brooklyn. They pointed out that the surrounding area, a deteriorating neighborhood in the 1950s, has changed dramatically since then.